The present invention relates to packing or packaging of products in containers that has to be performed in a special atmosphere, i.e. in a confined atmosphere, such as in glove boxes.
There are many industrial applications of this type of device and they concern, in particular, toxic or radioactive products or products that must be processed in an ultraclean atmosphere.
Referring to FIG. 1, one of the standard devices for distributing covers on drums in a glove box or similar chamber comprises the following main parts: a frame consisting of an upper plate 3 and a lower plate 4 parallel to one another and close together such that they provide a flat space in which a slider 5 may slide horizontally. Upper plate 3 comprises a cover positioning cell 8 the diameter of which is greater than the diameter of covers 2A to be installed on the containers and a container positioning cell 10 the diameter of which is greater than the diameter of containers 1 on which the covers are to be installed. Lower plate 4 comprises a positioning cell 9 located just under container positioning cell 10, i.e. along the same vertical axis.
Slider 5 is also equipped with a cover carrier cell 7 for carrying covers 2A located in cover positioning cell 8 one by one towards positioning cell 9. A gripping tab 6 is positioned horizontally on slider 5 and projects inside carrier cell 7 on the upper surface of slider 5. Therefore, when slider 5 is withdrawn to the left and carrier cell 7 is positioned under the pile of covers 2A, the cover at the bottom of said pile drops into carrier cell 7. As slider 5 is slightly thicker than each cover 2A gripping tab 6 enables only lower cover 2B to be removed from the pile of covers 2A, preventing the following cover from being also removed or bent. It should be noted that this operation is facilitated by the slightly sloping lateral shape of the covers to be handled.
When slider 5 is withdrawn into the position for gripping cover 2B to be carried it does not obstruct the container positioning cell 10 or positioning cell 9. Consequently, container 1, which is previously positioned in container positioning cell 10, passes through the distributor and is positioned on a device that transfers it towards a filling point. When the slider is pushed towards the right it takes with it a carried cover 2B to positioning cell 9 in which said cover falls onto the upper section of the container positioned on the transfer device.
Nevertheless, this type of device presents problems in as far as reliability is concerned, mainly due to the covers repeatedly becoming jammed when they are carried horizontally and to poor feed of the covers. The aim of the present invention is to overcome these drawbacks by using a slider distributor that operates reliably and that does not require human handling.
To this end, the invention mainly relates to a container cover distributor comprising:
a frame composed mainly of:
an upper plate comprising two cells, one of which is used to position the containers and the other of which is used to position the covers in a pile; and
a lower plate comprising a cell for positioning the containers and covers in a determined space located in the same axis under the cell into which the containers from the upper plate are introduced; and
a flat slider mounted to slide between the upper and lower plates comprising a carrier cell to receive and displace a cover taken from the bottom of the pile towards the container and cover positioning cell.
According to the invention, the distributor comprises a device for automatically lowering and introducing covers one by one into the carrier cell of the slider.
In the preferred embodiment of the distributor the device for lowering and introducing the cover comprises:
at least three double-fingers spread around the cover positioning cell to maintain the pile of covers just above the slider and to separate the bottom cover of the pile and free it to drop it into the carrier cell, said three double-fingers being mounted to pivot on the upper plate;
a ring for actuating the double-fingers, mounted to rotate around the positioning cell of the covers of the upper plate.
In the preferred embodiment of the ring, said ring has the same number of housings as double-fingers in each of which a stud is positioned that is connected to each of the double-fingers and that causes alternate successive rotations of said double-fingers when said ring revolves. In the preferred embodiment of the double-fingers each one comprises:
a gripping finger in a low position that uses the lower cover to maintain the pile of covers above the slider; and
a separating finger in a high position, one end of which is knife-shaped to separate the two lower covers, the space between the two fingers being greater than the thickness of one of the covers, the two fingers being offset at an angle to each other.
In the preferred embodiment of the distributor a device is used to set the ring rotating that comprises:
a pusher connected to the slider to push the ring into rotation; and
a pin that projects radially relative to the ring and against which the pusher comes to bear.
A return device is also preferably used that comprises:
a rod mounted to slide horizontally relative to the upper plate;
a return spring around the rod that is compressed by the rod and that comes to bear on a fixed stop of the upper plate; and
a fixed stop on the upper plate to halt the rotating movement of the ring when the slider is withdrawn.
List of Figures
The invention and its various technical characteristics will be better understood from the following description and several figures wherein:
FIG. 1 (described above) is a distributor of the prior art;
FIG. 2 is a cross-section of the distributor of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a detail of a section of the distributor of the invention;
FIGS. 4A and 4B are details of an embodiment of the device for lowering and introducing covers into the carrier cell of the slider; and
FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C are cross-sections showing the three main operating phases of the device of the invention.